Your Right to Know

The mayor has told his public-service director to improve the city’s 311 system, which can’t track calls by neighborhood or ZIP code, leaving officials at a loss about repeat complaints concerning potholes, trash pickup, graffiti and other problems.“The mayor said, ‘I want to know this stuff,’ ” said Michael B. Coleman’s spokesman, Dan Williamson. “There’s nothing bad that can come from more information.”

Coleman’s request to his staff came after The Dispatch reported in September that the city can’t generate reports to see which parts of Columbus are calling in the most complaints. “I think the mayor believes there could be some value in tracking,” Williamson said.

Cities such as New York and San Antonio track complaints and allow the public to generate reports as well.New York City’s 311 Internet page (www.nyc.gov/311) features a service-request map on which residents can search by neighborhood districts. Dots on maps show specific locations for complaints, including noise, sanitation and snow removal. There’s even one for “unsanitary pigeon conditions.”

“There’s always a clamor in New York City for information as to how the city is performing,” said Nick Sbordone, the city’s 311 spokesman.“It can certainly be an upper-management tool as well,” Sbordone said. Officials can “get a better handle on how the city is managing resources.”

Mark Kelsey, Columbus’ public-service director, said he will see whether mapping adds value to Columbus’ 311 system. He said in September he was skeptical that it would.

What can mapping do? For one thing, the city could track how money is spent responding to complaints, Kelsey said. A searchable system also could look for patterns that highlight service problems and track complaints about snow removal or blighted properties.Columbus’ 311 system, which was created in 2006, can search only by caller name or address. And it can list no more than 250 entries at a time.

Lois Bruce, who manages the city’s 311 system, said this about a searchable database: “In a perfect world, would it be great? Yes. But is it essential? No.”Residents can go to Columbus’ 311 website (311.columbus.gov) to submit service requests and schedule bulk pickup. They also can check on service requests if they know the number assigned to the request.The city spent $1.25 million to create the system, public-service spokesman Rick Tilton said. It spent $1.5 million to staff the center this year; the 311 center has 23 full-time workers.

Williamson said Coleman hasn’t asked for a specific outcome but expects results just the same.